Easterfest 2013: Day 2

Friday 29 March

Good Friday was the first full day of Easterfest. We slept in, and headed down the hill to Queen's Park just after noon.

First thing on my agenda was checking out the first of the Noise workshops being run by Parachute Music. These had been run last year as a separately-ticketed event, off-site. This year they were held in the park, and were one of the highlights for me. Aimed at breaking down barriers between the "headliner" and the "audience", they included Q&A sessions, interviews, and practical advice on musical topics.

The first workshop was a Guitar Clinic. According to the program, Patrick Judge of Demon Hunter and Dave Ghazarian of Audio Adrenaline were meant to be the guests. Event staff apologised on behalf of Patrick, who was still en route from the airport (not sure where Dave was), but they did have another guitarist on hand to interview - Seth Davis from worship group Ascend The Hill.

Seth runs through the various pedals in his rig.

It was an informative session, with Seth showing us how he gets various sounds out of his guitar and effects pedals.



From there we headed to join the very long line of people at the signing tent, waiting for Demon Hunter autographs. There were a lot of people, but it was a fast-moving line, so we all got through during the 30 minutes they had allocated for signing.

Back in November, I had made a Demon Hunter logo out of my castle Lego. Because I could.

DH encourage fans to email them fan art, tattoos, logos, and the like. I sent in this picture.

I printed out a 6" x 8" enlargement of the above photo, and had that with me for signing. Kara took one of my album covers.

The band signing for happy Christian metalheads.

Ryan passing my photo to Jeremiah to sign.

Yes, I took my Lego to Toowoomba. The signed photo (left) and CD art (right).

At 3 we found seats in The Arena for a Demon Hunter interview. Vocalist Ryan Clark and drummer "Yogi" Watts were interviewed on everything from how they defined themselves in genre terms, to their take on being a possible footnote in future history books.

Interview (and coffee) time with Ryan and Yogi.

After the interview, I ran into magician Christopher Wayne. Not performing at this year's festival, he was up for a visit and some close-up magic being recorded for Easterfest TV. Impressively, he recognised me as "Kara's husband" from Facebook - Kara's a fan of his page.

Getting a photo with Christopher Wayne, celebrity magician.

Christopher Wayne performing close-up magic for Easterfest TV's cameras.

Kara grabbed a spot on the hillside at Mainstage, while I went back to the hotel to grab a rug to sit on, as well as change into boots (essential mosh pit preventative measure) and grab some drinks to go with dinner. The yakisoba I had wasn't the best I've ever had, but was very good value for festival food.

The bright figure on the catwalk is Paul Colman performing on Mainstage.

Sanctus Real's rock show.

After Sanctus Real, Relient K were the headliners on Mainstage. I stayed for four songs, and was glad they started with some older songs that I knew - "Mood Rings" is one of my favourites. I would've stayed for the whole set, but I wanted to get to the Big Top early for the heavy show, so that I wouldn't have to fight my way to the front. Friday's metal headliners were Demon Hunter, one of my favourite metal bands, on their first visit to Australia. That gig (and my photos) will get their own post.

Doors opened at 8:45 pm, and I got a spot close to the centre of stage, near the corner where a small catwalk came out into the crowd. First up at 9 pm were Australian metal band Mortification. I didn't know their stuff, even though they've been around over 20 years, but it was all very good, and got the crowd going.

Up next... Demon Hunter!